Schumacher was struggling with rear tyre grip towards the end of the session and had an off-track moment at the first corner.

Several incidents during the session made life difficult for drivers trying to set laps on the soft tyres.

One of the first drivers to go off was Bruno Senna, who lost control of his Renault at turn one.

He skidded across the tarmac run-off and into the gravel on the outside of the corner. Fortunately he kept the engine running and was able to continue.

Rubens Barrichello was not so lucky when he lost control of his car at the entry to Degner. He touched the grass on the way into the corner and spun into the barrier.

It was a double blow for Williams as Pastor Maldonado pulled over at the corner shortly afterwards with an apparently technical problem.

The most lurid moment of the session came when Kamui Kobayashi lost control of his car at 300kph going through 130R. Impressively he wrestled the Sauber away from the barrier at the inside of the corner and continued without damage.

Kobayashi had two other moments during the session, twice running wide at the Spoon Curve.

Vitantonio Liuzzi logged just four laps in his only practice session of the day before his HRT came to a stop.

@mwoerne on what evidence? Lewis has been slower than button in both sessions, and as Ted Kravitz was saying this morning in 1st practise, his head is definitely not in the right place this weekend. He was insinuating that at one point, Lewis was almost in tears because of all the flaming he is getting.

Jenson may be the fastest but it’s a bit discerning that the RBs are 1sec+ faster on the heaviest fuel load… McLaren will have to rein their lap times in on the heavy fuel load settings. They may be better of running the richest fuel mix to run the fuel down and then switch to lean towards the end of the race – but that depends on what position they will be in qualifying and during the start of the race. and of course RB would be looking to do the same with their fuel mixtures.

@AndrewTanner It would make my year if Kobayashi and Sauber have another fantastic race here and score some solid points. I think it’s going to be tricky, but if anyone deserves to have a bit of good luck in these final few races it’s Sauber and Kobayashi. Especially considering what the Japanese people have faced this year.

Was following the FP2 commentary. They all seemed to do a longer pit with about 18mins of the session to go, then when they all came back out again no one were beating their fastest times, in fact, similiar to what Stefanauss said, they were lapping in the 1.38s and 1.39s – so they would’ve been simulating their heavy fuel loads.